The House Carpenter- Evilsizer (MI) 1935 Gardner B
[From: Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan by Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 1939. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
10 THE HOUSE CARPENTER
(James Hams; The Daemon Lover, Child, No. 243)
The Michigan texts are most similar to Child B, although there are stanzas in the Child text which are replaced by others in the Michigan forms. (See Child, IV, 360-369.) For texts and references, with a discussion of the song, see Cox, pp. 139-149, and Davis, pp. 439-478. See also Barbour, JAFL, XLIX, 209-211; Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 304-310; Bulletin, VII, n; Eddy, No. 16; Greig, pp. 196-197; Hudson, pp. 19-21; Sandburg, pp. 66-67; Scarborough, pp. 150-159; Sharp, I, 244--258; Smith, pp. 151-155; Stout, pp. 11-13; and Thomas, pp. 172-173. None of these texts has lines similar to stanza 7 of Michigan C, with its premonition of disaster, which is perhaps a slight remnant of superstition.
B. Sung in 1935 by Mr. Otis Evilsizer, Alger.
Music- upcoming
1 "Well met, well met, my pretty fair maid,
Well met, well met," cried he,
"For I have crossed the salty, salty sea,
And 'twas all for the love of thee.
For I have crossed the salty, salty sea,
And 'twas all for the love of thee.
2 "O I could have married a king's daughter,
And she would have married me;
But I have returned to old Amerikie,
And 'twas all for the love of thee."
3 "If you could have married the king's daughter,
I'm sure you're much to blame,
For I have married the house carpenter,
And I think he's a fine young man."
4 "If you will forsake your house carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you to where the grass grows green
On the banks of Italy."
5 "If I should forsake my house carpenter
And go along with thee,
0 what have you got to maintain me on
Or to keep me from slavery?"
6 "O I have ten ships that's now in port
And ten more out at sea,
A hundred and ten brave sailor men,
And they're all for to wait upon thee."
7 She dressed herself in scarlet red
Most beautiful to behold,
And then she went up and down the street,
And she shone like glittering gold.
8 Then she picked up her lily-white babe
And kisses she gave it three,
Saying, "Stay at home for your papa's company
While I am going on sea."
9 O they had not been on board two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
When this fair maid was known for to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
10 "O do you weep for more riches,
Or could you ask for more,
Or do you weep for that house carpenter
That you left on the other shore?"
11. "O I do not weep for more riches,
Nor could I ask for more,
But I do weep for that pretty little babe
That I left on the other shore."
12 O they had not been on board three weeks,
I know it was not four,
When under deck there sprung a leak,
And their voices were heard no more.